Say Goodbye To Direct Tv!

[charper1]

And cable goes out when they lose power, have an ice storm, someone takes out a pole, line or box, someone digs up a line installing a pool. There are just as many, if not more variables that affect cable outages. My dish makes it through the intense monsoon and dust storms we get every now and then here in the Phoenix Valley. And sometime it goes out for a few minutes. But unlike cable, it will clear itself up in a few, and in the event of cable's downed poles or lines, etc, sats are back up and running own their own with no major waits on cable techs or utility companies to determine the causes and then start & finish major repairs. Even in a major power loss my $200 generator keeps me running.

 

[stevesmall]

Jhon69 you have it backwards, Satellite TV goes out with BAD WEATHER not Cable. That's one of the reasons that I might go back to Cable. Plus they have "Howard Stern On Demand".

comcast here in my part of south jersey was out way more than my sat. as for weather being a factor that was more true in the past but in the last 3 years i very rarely have an issue with my directv picture going out

 

[Claude Greiner]

If you truely like cable and think their technology and system is better than by all means switch.

But if your switching to save $5 or $10 per month while your under one of their special win-back promotions your a fool.

I see this everyday, people get Dish because they are tired of their cable company. A few months later the cable company calls them up and offers them a special deal to switch back. Customer switches back thinking they are saving money and after they got rid of their Dish they again realize why they hate their cable company and switched in the first place.

I have lost customers to cable over as little as $5/mo. Sure it adds up over several months and can add to some significant savings. But what blows my mind is that the customer will have no issue spending $4000 on a new plasma HDTV, but will hook it up with a crappy signal from Cable over $5/mo

 

[kb7oeb]

When I lived at my Dad's house (1997) the cable usually only had problem if the power went out (usually happened with a storm but not always). When the power came back on many of the channels would be scrambled, I remember the discovery channel was scrambled and the audio was a recording saying to call some number to subscribe. Back then the guide channel was Prevue channel and it would come up to the Amiga Workbench. I guess back then Cox couldn't afford a UPS for the head end. I went with directv shortly after because I moved a lot and didn't need credit to get it.

I haven't had cable since so I have no idea how reliable it is in my area. A friend of mine often complained his tv,phone and internet kept going out in his area.

 

[Mike500]

Each service has its advantages and disadvantages. There are those who switch cars and houses every year or every couple of years. The one they don't have is what they are convincing themselves is the one that they need to switch to.

I've known customers who are never satisfied. I don't argue with them anymore. I just switch tem, and then I charge them the fees for parts and labor. If thye don't want to pay "to have their ticket punches, they don't ride." I just run, not walk away from them.

 

[narnia777]

I posted a long discussion on my blog about me comparing cable to sat both dish network and directv.. for me it boiled down to:

Directv for TC+ with DVR service is $10-$20 cheaper then eithor AT180 Dish Network and DVR or digital cable plus package. In all three cases I did not include premium chanenls since I prefer to rent DVDs... but HBO is $18 with Comcast, $12 with Directv.

On Demand was nice to play with on digital cable but it's not worth the extra monthly cost.

Picture quality on Directv is awesome even local channels are fed via fiber and digital quality. The first 100 channels (2-99) of cable isn't even digital with "digital cable".

So until Comcast compete's with price and goes all digital I won't be considering it again and will stay with Directv.

Jim

 

[joedekock]

I called a couple of weeks ago to see about switching to Charter from Directv. I got an offer in the mail stating that I could get their "Bigger Value Package" and 3mb internet for $79.95 a month. I am currently paying $82 a month for Directv, and $20.00 for 3mb SBC DSL, (AT&T).

I have two receivers, (one a DVR, and one a HD Receiver). I have the Total Choice plus with Directv with locals, High Def, and HBO. So the "Bigger Value" Package with Charter is comparable. I would get Cinemax as well, and I could chose one more package from them included in that $79 price. So I could take Starz, or a sports, or family package.

Anyway. After telling her that I have a cable modem that I own, so I don't need to rent that, we started adding up the "other costs". To get their HD package is $9.99 more a month. To get a HD receiver that is a DVR is another $11.00 a month. To get a second receiver for our second Television so that we can receive the digital channels on it, is $6.99 a month. So now I am paying $107.93 a month. That is a little different than $79.95 a month. So then I asked about taxes. She said that the taxes add roughly $10.00 a month. So $117.93 a month! I pay $102 a month with Satellite and DSL! And that rate is steady... this charter price will go up after a year to about $140.00 a month according to their website. The deal is they will lock you into another discounted rate for 12 months after this promotional 12 month rate. But it is not as good as their promotional rate, and you cannot qualify for another promotional rate. Their "discounted" 12 month rate after promotional rate is better than their regular month to month rate though. Although not by much.

Satellite and DSL is still the way to go. I pay less and have a much better picture quality with satellite.

 

[scotsmanron]

What frosts me is here in Florida there is a 13% tax on sat dish service that isn't applied to cable. I pay a nice premium each month for D*.

 

[Proc]

Comcast offered me their "Ditch the Dish" program which essentially is $400 off, which translates into $25 off the bill each month for 16 months. It would've given me 1 HD DVR box, 1 standard digital box, the HD package and HBO/Cinemax for under $63 a month (that included taxes). It really is a good deal. I pay roughly $80 a month now for TC+, HD package,Tivo and the protection plan with D*. But because Comcast burned me before and jacked the price up after a promotion, I refused to do it. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from several years ago when I went to renogiate my "deal" and was told by the Comcast CSR, "Last year we made a commitment to our customers. This year we expect our customers to make a commitment to us." Ugh.

 

[scotsmanron]

Doesn't work that way. I'm profit, they are overhead. As long as I'm profit I expect to be treated very well.

 

[MacDawg]

All I know is this. Directv was up and running great after the hurricane we had in Norfolk Virginia back in Sept 2003. Cable company was out for over 2 weeks. Also cable DO NOT HAVE THE NFL PACKAGE!